carry coals to Newcastle
carry coals to Newcastle verb: to do something that is unneeded or redundant.
Verb
carry coals to Newcastle (third-person singular simple present carries coals to Newcastle, present participle carrying coals to Newcastle, simple past and past participle carried coals to Newcastle)
- To do something that is unneeded or redundant.
- However curious it may seem for an oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the whale-ground, and however much it may invertedly contradict the old proverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, yet sometimes such a thing really happens; and in the present case Captain Derick De Deer did indubitably conduct a...1851, Herman Melville, chapter 81, in Moby-Dick
- He's the fellow who likes to let off stink bombs in night clubs, which rather falls under the head of carrying coals to Newcastle […]1960, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter II, in Jeeves in the Offing
carry coals to Newcastle meaning in Vietnamese
carry coals to Newcastle in Vietnamese
- do something unneeded or redundant
- chở củi về rừng, dã tràng xe cát biển Đông, dã tràng xe cát
Synonyms of carry coals to Newcastle
Forms of carry coals to Newcastle
| third-person singular present | carries coals to Newcastle |
|---|---|
| present participle | carrying coals to Newcastle |
| past participle | carried coals to Newcastle |
| past | carried coals to Newcastle |
| alternative form | bring coals to Newcastle |
| alternative form | sell coal to Newcastle |
| alternative form | sell coals to Newcastle |
| alternative form | take coals to Newcastle |
Origin of carry coals to Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne (in England) was a major coal-exporting city, so sending coal there would be pointless.
Questions about carry coals to Newcastle
- What does carry coals to Newcastle mean?
- Carry coals to Newcastle means to do something that is unneeded or redundant.
- What is carry coals to Newcastle in Vietnamese?
- Carry coals to Newcastle in Vietnamese is chở củi về rừng, dã tràng xe cát biển Đông, dã tràng xe cát. See Carry coals to Newcastle meaning in Vietnamese.
- What part of speech is carry coals to Newcastle?
- Carry coals to Newcastle is a verb.
- What is the past tense of carry coals to Newcastle?
- The past tense of carry coals to Newcastle is carried coals to Newcastle.
Words near carry coals to Newcastle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: carry coals to Newcastle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-carry coals to Newcastle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “carry coals to Newcastle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carry_coals_to_newcastle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.